An earthenware hexagonal teapot with green lead glaze and additional raw metal oxides. Wheel thrown, slab built, extruded, press moulded, stamped and sprigged. The design for this teapot occurred to me many years before I got a chance to make it, this example is the very first one I made. I was experimenting with different clays at the time and therefore this version with a darker body clay will probably be the only one I make in this dark colour, having now settled on lighter coloured clays. My inspiration came partly from the fabulously ornate teapots produced in Staffordshire in the 1750-1780 period.
I regard teapots as the ceramic equivalent of the artist’s canvas, like a three dimensional canvas (that is valid in it’s own right and does not need to emulate a flat painted canvas). I currently make my teapots so that they include all the features of a working teapot (spout, strainer, lid, handle etc.), but they are not intended for brewing tea (they do function but they are lead glazed and therefore not food safe). By making my teapots apparently fully functional and not too far removed from what is easily recognisable as a teapot, I am treading on unsettled ground. If they were deliberately non-functional and exaggerated in form then they would be easier to accept as ceramic art. I enjoy exploring these uncomfortable boundaries that make catagorisation difficult.
Date made:
April 2022
Material:
Earthenware with lead glaze and raw oxides.
Height:
179 mm
Width:
248 mm
Net weight:
877 grams
Condition:
New.
